He started out as a kid with a love for the game. He grew into a quarterback with a die-hard passion. Meet Nick Thompson.

“I’ve always had an interest in football,” said Thompson, who just began his senior year. “[It started back when] I was a little kid.”

Thompson will be entering his eighth season of football, and began playing at the age of nine. “I started playing because I look up to professional [teams], like the NFL. I’ve always been a fan of the NFL.”

Thompson continues to keep up with his favorite team, the Oakland Raiders, and his favorite player, Rich Gannon.

Thompson started off playing for recreational league teams and continued this until he got the opportunity to play in high school. Once he had that option, he immediately took advantage of it.

“[Playing for Carlmont] has been a really fun experience,” said Thompson. “I’m glad that I played all four years. I don’t have any regrets.”

With a new coach and some fresh faces on the team, Thompson has one goal for the upcoming season: “a lot of wins.”

As for the team overall, Thompson believes there are “strong players” and “speed” this year. While the team is still getting to know the new varsity coach Rich Gianuario, Thompson has trust in the team’s defensive and offensive techniques.

“We’ve been working on offense, and we have a few amount of plays down really good,” said Thompson. “[As for] defense, we’ve been going over the same [techniques] that we’ve been using for the last couple of years, so it’s all pretty familiar.”

Both the junior varsity and varsity teams will face Half Moon Bay in a scrimmage game Aug. 29 beginning at 5 p.m for junior varsity and 7 p.m. for varsity.